"Is it a big number?" Alfie asked on Saturday morning, both feet on the Clarks measuring gauge and standing so straight he was nearly on tiptoe. It was a full size up on the spring, which is exactly the number I'd been dreading and also the reason I measure now instead of buying a size up and hoping. It being the bank holiday weekend, there were fourteen families ahead of us, and the assistant had the look of someone who'd said "wiggle your toes" a hundred times already.
By Sunday teatime the Year 5 and Year 1 uniform was bought, labelled and hanging on the back of two bedroom doors. The total for both children came to £187.40. Here is every line of it.
The full list
- Four logo sweatshirts from the school's supplier, £13 each: £52.00
- Isla's school shoes, Clarks: £50.00
- Alfie's school shoes: £38.00
- Polo shirts, two five-packs from Tesco (£6.50 and £5.50): £12.00
- Alfie's grey trousers, pack of three from Asda: £9.00
- Isla's grey pinafore, new: £8.00
- Isla's second pinafore, from the PTA preloved rail: £2.00
- PE shorts, one pair each at £3.50: £7.00
- Plain white PE T-shirts from the preloved rail, £1.20 each: £2.40
- Book bags, £3.50 each: £7.00
That splits as £100.70 for Isla and £86.70 for Alfie. Socks, tights, underwear and coats aren't in there, because I count those as ordinary clothes. The name labels (sixty iron-on tapes, £6.50) are outside the total too.
How the weekend actually went
I'll be honest that it wasn't all one weekend. The logo order went in a fortnight ago, because the supplier slows to a crawl in the last week of August, and it came to Jean next door in a single parcel, which kept Rob's running joke about Jean's parcel service going for another week. The two second-hand bits came off the PTA rail at the summer fair on 5 July, when I had no idea what size Isla would be and bought on hope. Everything else happened between Saturday morning and Sunday lunch.
Saturday was shoes. I won't buy a size up any more: Alfie's oversized pair last year gave him blisters and then wore through at the toe crease anyway, so the saving was imaginary. Isla is a 3 now, which is nearly a small adult, and her Clarks were £50 with her feet measured twice because she kept scrunching her toes. Alfie's pair came from a different shop on the same street for £38, and he chose them because the soles had a dinosaur footprint stamped in the heel.
In the afternoon I did Tesco and Asda while Rob took the children to Beckett Park. I try not to take two children into a supermarket uniform aisle, because everything is on a rail at exactly Alfie's head height and he treats it as a den. Sunday was labels, a try-on and a hanging session. Isla wore the pinafore down the landing as if it were a ballgown.
Where the money went
Shoes are nearly half the bill (£88 of £187.40) and the four logo sweatshirts are over a quarter of it. That leaves the cheap stuff doing most of the work: £47.40 for everything else, which is what the supermarkets and the preloved rail are for. I did look at buying the logo sweatshirts second-hand, but the rail didn't have Alfie's size or Isla's, and I wasn't prepared to go without on the first day.
It helps to say what I didn't buy. PE bags, water bottles and Alfie's reading folder all carried over from last year, and Isla's black plimsolls still fit with room to spare. The more I leave in the cupboard, the less the August total looks like a punishment.
The weak point will be Alfie's trousers. Three pairs for £9 is a lovely price and I give them until about Christmas before the knees go, so I'm already watching the clearance rail for a spare. Isla's pinafores should last the year, since she isn't the sort to slide across a playground on her knees.
The sums: £187.40 for two children, of which £88 was shoes, £52 was logo and £47.40 was everything else.
